MERGED: Ash Wednesday/Lent Fasting Questions

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I was away from the Catholic Church for a long time and this is my first Lenten season since being back. I guess when I was younger, I didn’t really pay attention to the fasting rules during Lent.

Can someone help me out and explain to me what you eat during a fast? I know the rules are only 1 full meal but what else do you eat during the day and how often? If for example, I usually have a sandwhich, chips and an iced green tea for lunch, if I didn’t have the chips and the tea, would just the sandwhich be considered a meal? Should I do half a sandwich (with no chips and tea)?

Thanks in advance for your help.
 
One meal, and two smaller snacks/meals that together do not equal a full meal. And we can’t gorge on the one meal to overcompensate. We are supposed to feel some hunger pain. Remember as well, it applies only for those of the right age, and for those who are medically able to do so.

Ash Wednesday and Good Friday are obligatory days of fasting and abstinence for Catholics. In addition, Fridays during Lent are obligatory days of abstinence.
For members of the Latin Catholic Church, the norms on fasting are obligatory from age 18 until age 59. When fasting, a person is permitted to eat one full meal. Two smaller meals may also be taken, but not to equal a full meal. The norms concerning abstinence from meat are binding upon members of the Latin Catholic Church from age 14 onwards

usccb.org/prayer-and-worship/liturgical-resources/lent/catholic-information-on-lenten-fast-and-abstinence.cfm
 
For those of us who are unable to fast - what are some things you do to make fast days special?
 
Don’t forget the sandwich can’t have ANY meat on it. Ash Wednesday is a day for abstaining from meat as well as the fasting.
 
Dnice said:
I was away from the Catholic Church for a long time and this is my first Lenten season since being back. I guess when I was younger, I didn’t really pay attention to the fasting rules during Lent.

Can someone help me out and explain to me what you eat during a fast? I know the rules are only 1 full meal but what else do you eat during the day and how often? If for example, I usually have a sandwhich, chips and an iced green tea for lunch, if I didn’t have the chips and the tea, would just the sandwhich be considered a meal? Should I do half a sandwich (with no chips and tea)?

Thanks in advance for your help.
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Skip the chips (and maybe swap the tea for water?). You can have your “big” meal whenever you want and two smaller meals during the day, but fasting means no eating in between meals and we must also abstain from eating meat on Ash Wednesday (time to break out the tuna casserole!) Eat enough so you don’t feel light headed or sick, but pass on second helpings and desert. A Catholic fast is midnight to midnight, so Ash Wednesday begins at midnight Tuesday and ends at midnight on Wednesday. Welcome (back) Home! We missed you. 👋
 
DarkLight said:
For those of us who are unable to fast - what are some things you do to make fast days special?
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I might do a modified fast where I eat enough to keep my blood sugar steady, and don’t eat between meals unless I am having a low glucose problem. If I feel nauseated and hungry and shaky, I eat or drink something, though. Otherwise you can do extra devotions and prayers or give up TV or the Internet for the day.
 
Catholic1954 said:
Skip the chips (and maybe swap the tea for water?). You can have your “big” meal whenever you want and two smaller meals during the day, but fasting means no eating in between meals and we must also abstain from eating meat on Ash Wednesday (time to break out the tuna casserole!) Eat enough so you don’t feel light headed or sick, but pass on second helpings and desert. A Catholic fast is midnight to midnight, so Ash Wednesday begins at midnight Tuesday and ends at midnight on Wednesday. Welcome (back) Home! We missed you. 👋
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and meatless fridays during lent as well, is that correct?
 
In addition to going meatless, you could fast from:

TV
Soda
Sweets
Driving
Internet (CAF!)
Magazines
Music
Coffee
Sleeping in (or just wake up extra early)
Smoking
Facebook

… 🙂 I have no trouble thinking of things to sacrifice, but a world of trouble keeping them!
 
Dnice said:
I was away from the Catholic Church for a long time and this is my first Lenten season since being back. I guess when I was younger, I didn’t really pay attention to the fasting rules during Lent.

Can someone help me out and explain to me what you eat during a fast? I know the rules are only 1 full meal but what else do you eat during the day and how often? If for example, I usually have a sandwhich, chips and an iced green tea for lunch, if I didn’t have the chips and the tea, would just the sandwhich be considered a meal? Should I do half a sandwich (with no chips and tea)?

Thanks in advance for your help.
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I explained it to my son, by saying:

For two meals, cut them in half.

He normally might eat a sandwich, a couple of handfuls of chips and an apple. (Drinks aren’t the same a food.)

So for lunch, have half a sandwich (grilled cheese), one handful of chips and half an apple.

Breakfast might be two slices of toast and a couple of eggs. So make that one slice of toast and just one egg.

We are having a normal dinner of fish, potatoes and a veggie. No dessert.

I should add that this is his first year truly fasting. He just turned 18. The one thing I don’t want to do is to make it so hard that he figures that he can’t do it, so he doesn’t try.
 
Say a whole rosary, or just an extra decade or two

go totally meatless for lent

write a letter every day to someone (family, old friend, deployed Service member)

go to mass everyday, and include Stations of the Cross, both at church and at home

Pray for an end to abortion

Read about the lives of the saints

Buy sacramentals and distribute them to school children, hospitalized, in prison

Don’t eat anything that might be considered a snack food outside of your immediate nutritional needs (so, don’t have fruit in jello if you really just need the fruit)
 
CB_Catholic said:
I might do a modified fast where I eat enough to keep my blood sugar steady, and don’t eat between meals unless I am having a low glucose problem. If I feel nauseated and hungry and shaky, I eat or drink something, though. Otherwise you can do extra devotions and prayers or give up TV or the Internet for the day.
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Thank you for posting this, Carolyn. I’ve been thinking about trying to fast, but as someone with type-II diabetes, wasn’t sure if it was a good idea. I’ve also been thinking about what I can add to my daily routine, so it’s nice to think that I can do extra devotions and keep the spirit of the season.
 
Are there other people here who are afraid every time a fast day approaches? Afraid they might not make it, afraid it might affect their health… maybe with borderline health problems who are not so straight forward that they would have consulted a doctor… and who at the same time don’t want to focus too much on this fear and lsoe the spirituality of that day because of it?

Anyway I am such a person… and since I have had some health problems I did consult a priest about it who could help me with a specific problem, but still it might be nice to have some support from other people who have similar problems… or do you think that will just again put too much focus on it? And better not write about it and focus on the spiritual and do the fasting on our own, if we can, health-wise?

Anyway I am writing from Europe so it’s soon bed-time for me, but maybe I’ll send this off after all… maybe it will just help somebody else and/or me to know we are not alone?
(which we never are anyway, since Jesus knows all the suffering)

I am much more at ease than other years though I think :)))

Kathrin
 
Hm.
Maybe I have such problems with fasting because I eat much less than this?
My two smaller meals are maybe
an apple or
a slice of bread or
a banana
oh and I do need coffee otherwise I am afraid because of problems with low blood pressure and heart rate… so I try to make that part of a meal so as not to take it in between meals.
I think sometimes I only did one small meal and then have the one big meal alte in the evening because I have problems sleeping when I am hungry and that is not good for my health at all, lacking sleep.
This time I have had some health problems anyway, I alsoready talked with a priest about it (respectively messaged), but I think I should at least try… do you think that sounds like TOO little food? But then, other people don’t eat anything at all… only, one time last week when I hadn’t eaten much I started feeling really lightheaded so I do have to be careful…

But then, the smaller meals aren’t supposed to ne real meals, and since I am a small eater normally, I should make them really small like just a piece of fruit…

Normally I eat many times over the day, so really I normally eat small meals, but just more.
It is more complicated to fast if you’re not a normal eater 😉
 
The hard part for me is as much, how little I have to begin with often. I don’t own a car or a tv. I don’t eat much or expensively because I can’t afford it - meals are “what’s around and cheap”. I don’t smoke, and I don’t drink often. I can’t really give to charity because I have little money and more debt. I haven’t eaten meat in years. At this point it just seems like there’s nothing in my life that I could really do without very easily. Which is honestly sort of depressing when I think about something like Lent…
 
Kathrin said:
Are there other people here who are afraid every time a fast day approaches? Afraid they might not make it, afraid it might affect their health… maybe with borderline health problems who are not so straight forward that they would have consulted a doctor… and who at the same time don’t want to focus too much on this fear and lsoe the spirituality of that day because of it?

Anyway I am such a person… and since I have had some health problems I did consult a priest about it who could help me with a specific problem, but still it might be nice to have some support from other people who have similar problems… or do you think that will just again put too much focus on it? And better not write about it and focus on the spiritual and do the fasting on our own, if we can, health-wise?

Anyway I am writing from Europe so it’s soon bed-time for me, but maybe I’ll send this off after all… maybe it will just help somebody else and/or me to know we are not alone?
(which we never are anyway, since Jesus knows all the suffering)

I am much more at ease than other years though I think :)))

Kathrin
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I do not have any issues with fasting, but an idea if you are worried about it is keeping a snack or two nearby if you feel as though your health is aversely affected at any time. Also, make sure your fluid intake is regular; there is nothing worse than fainting due to dehydration. Hope this helps, and happy Lent!
 
DarkLight, I have been in your shoes several times. Instead of “giving up” something for lent, I tried then (as now) to greatly increase my daily prayers.

Saying the rosary every day? Say another decade.
Pray for the poor, the lonely , the unborn.

Prayer time spent praying for someone else is most excellent. Especially pray for those, perhaps, to whom one has been uncharitable, or those for whom we have a lingering antipathy.
 
i sometimes suffer with low blood sugar, when i am fasting and have the effects of low sugar i will drink some coconut water or a cup of carrot juice.
 
If you are diabetic or are prone to hypoglycemia, you’re not obligated to fast. Same if you do heavy manual labour. God doesn’t command the impossible or the dangerous. You are also except as soon as you reach 59 years of age (entering into your 60th year).

It’s a judgement call if it applies to you or not.

Also note the definition of fasting: it’s does not mean no food during the day. It means one main meal and two smaller meals that together do not add up to a full meal. And of course on Ash Wednesday as well as all Fridays through Lent, no meat.

I myself am type II diabetic and I find my diabetic control works better if I eat regular meals at predictable times so I won’t be fasting though I will give up deserts and won’t eat meat on Ash Wednesday and Fridays during Lent.
 
People with health problems and over a certain age (I think 58) are dispenced from fasting in the Roman Rite to begin with.

I am 58 with many health problems, but I intend to try my best with fasting anyway. But not to the extent of risking my well being.
 
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